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What kind of accent do you have?

What kind of accent do you have? While growing up in Michigan, my brother, sister and I picked up slight Michigan accents. We'd say things like "maahm" instead of "mom," and "caehr" instead of "car," and "Bab" instead of "Bob." After living in New York for twelve years, I've basically lost it, but sometimes when I drink too much wine, it can randomly bust out again. Yes, Michigan!

George Mason University collects speech samples from around the world, and everyone has to read this paragraph: "Please call Stella. Ask her to bring these things with her from the store: Six spoons of fresh snow peas, five thick slabs of blue cheese, and maybe a snack for her brother Bob. We also need a small plastic snake and a big toy frog for the kids. She can scoop these things into three red bags, and we will go meet her Wednesday at the train station."

Have you taken the fascinating dialect quiz that has spread like wildfire online? What answer did you get? (It pinpointed that I was from Michigan.) And in the video above, actress Amy Walker does 24 different accents (some are better than others). The California one made me laugh out loud.

Ooh this is interesting. I have a north of England accent but it's quite soft because I've lived in London for years. My brother lives in New York and has picked up a bit of an American lilt - but when we're together, we become all northern again!

I have loved this Amy Walker video for years! She's so talented. My accent is a little bit Southern US but not too thick. I do say "y'all" though! My husband makes fun of me for the way I pronounce the word "orange" (I say the first syllable like the 'AR' in "car").

Hmmm.... her Dublin and Belfast accents are very strange! The Belfast one starts off as a pretty good Dublin one and then whitters off into a strange hybrid of a Northern Irish and something else and I don't know how to describe her actual attempt at a Dublin accent - but it's a bit 'oirish' 'begorrah' off the tv in a very fake, 1950's general accent that is very un-irish indeed!

She can do a lot more accents than I can but (sorry to be a nay-sayer) the Brooklyn accent is so off! I'm from Long Island and we definitely have our own thing going on as far as speech (I try to hide it at all times!). I think accents from the NY area are the toughest to copy believably. Overall, nice job Amy!

My Michigan accent comes out a lot too, hahaha. Do you want to go to the movies, errr no? My girls at work say I say things completely wrong sometimes, hahaha. Guess us Michiganders don't have the best speech! Perhaps now that I've been in Cali for a couple years I'll adopt an event lazier accent ;)

Dublin accent....or Dubbelin as it seems to sound to foreigners when I say it! I lived in Australia for a while & people were always asking me to say 'bus', 'cup' and 'Dublin' because their u sounds more like an a there. Dablin!

Californian born to a Southern mother--then spent 9 years living in the N.C. and S.C...so I mix in both "y'all" and "totally!" into my speech like some deranged Valley Girl Scarlet O'Hara. On the quiz I got "San Jose, Calif."

I lived in Charleston for a while and I have to say I'm not convinced by Amy's Charleston accent (although I'm very impressed by the video). I think perhaps she is affecting an accent that was used more in the 60's... very fun all the same!

yes, clio and amanda, her accents are sometimes good (i thought she nailed california) and sometimes not quite right (italian and french are a bit off, i thought)....but still, so impressive to try 24 all in a row :)

I gave up using the term pop after my 2nd year in NYC, but I can't ever seem to call athletic shoes "sneakers" they'll always be tennis shoes (or tennies, as my mom says)! That quiz was spot on, I was born in Kansas but both my parents are Michiganders and we moved back when I was young. However, I still use the terms roly poly and lightning bug from childhood so I got Detroit and Overland Park KS!

I've been reading for a while and didn't know you grew up in Michigan! I love the honest nature of this space, so I'd love to ask a question. I recently moved to MI from Texas and am wondering if you have any tips for seasonal depression. These grey skies are killing me!

this was fascinating, although i think her charleston accent was more theatrical than real (but maybe we're always the moot critical of the accents that we also share). the seattle one seemed spot on though.

and mine was knoxville, chattanooga, nashville. having grown up in east tennessee, i'd say it was correct!

caitlin, sending you a kiss! i've heard that taking vitamin D can really help, and have you ever used a lightbox? they are amazing, you can actually feel yourself getting cheerier as you look into it: http://goo.gl/P1L6cT

Love this video! I think I fit the Seattle Accent the most but I was born in California (to Californian born and raised parents) and I lived in Maryland for 11 years and have been in North Carolina for 14. I'm sure I've picked up a little bit of a Southern dialect but I definitely don't sound like I'm from the south.

I'm from Michigan too, and I've spent the last seven years outside of Michigan - in Colorado, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and now Mississippi. I'm moving to Germany in May… needless to say, my accent is a little bit of a mix of everything. Though I will say this, the second I step off the plane at DTW my a's get a whole lot more basil-y.

My husband and I were in Scotland a few years ago in a touristy little shop trying to pick out a scarf for my stepmom and the shopkeep basically pounced on us asking where we were from. Turned out she was from Canada and she was so confused because we sounded Canadian, but not any Canadian she had ever heard before. I guess growing up near Detroit and the Canada border must have influenced our speech a little!

In Southern Ontario (Toronto and area) we most often get told our accent is most similar to that of California. While travelling in Southeast Asia, we most often got asked if we were from Cali - mostly from Californians! The caricature of an accent that is put on to denote Canadians is absolutely ridiculous :( BUT, we do say "eh" - just not in the way everyone thinks we say it.

Once again, an online quiz was spot on. I've lived in CA, NY, GA, but for the last 15 years I've been in MA, just outside of Boston, and sure enough, the quiz said Boston. I get a kick out of these things. Have you seen the one on Buzzfeed about which Downton Abbey character you are? Silly and funny, but what amazed me was that although I was surprised to find that I am Lord Grantham (say what?!), the description of my personality was quite accurate.

It was entirely precise! I was born in NY but have lived in South Florida/ Ft. Lauderdale for 23 years- and it pinpointed the SoFLa area of Ft. Lauderdale/ Miami/ and it's suburbs for my accent! I was really curious about it, and really surprised how accurate it is.

I'm from NYC, but people always make fun of the Britishisms in my accent because I've lived in the UK for five years.

The researcher behind that quiz, Bert Vaux, is a good friend of mine--I love that it's gone viral! He's American and although he's lived in the UK for years, he seems immune to picking up any Britishisms himself!

I have experienced a similar thing as you- I grew up in Wisconsin (woohoo Midwest!) and gradually lost my accent as I went to college in Chicago. But it comes out when I'm mad ("Oh fer Pete's saaake!") or have drank a little wine, like you say. Ha. The accents here in Rhode Island (where I currently live) are so crazy! I had no idea they were so strong until I moved here. It's hilarious watching the local news and local commercials- it's very similar to a Boston accent but a tad different.

Love this post! Amy is super talented and I enjoyed her accents except COME ON, most Canadians do not speak that way! The main exception would be hockey players and commentators, who seem to have this very culturally specific hockey accent, which I would guess is where the stereotype comes from. Most Canadians I know sound much more like the Seattle or California accent.

Well, I think being British screwed this up a bit. As I use lots of the British words, but then know the American terms now as I live here, so a bit mixed! I came out as Honolulu / Boston / Providence. Actually like the other Brit 'Starryeyed' who left a comment!!! So maybe it is correct!

Great post! Loved the video and the quiz is awesome! There were a few very specific questions that were like a bullseye to my state/area. I've never heard of anywhere else but Massachusetts/Rhode Island where they call a drinking fountain a bubbler, so, with that one question, they got 95% of the way there with me. I think the traffic/road questions, and associated distinctions, were the most interesting. A rotary in Massachusetts is most definitely a roundabout in other areas. Here, we call everything a truck, but I would bet in the South or in particular areas which rely on the big interstates for commerce traffic actually use the various distinctions to describe different types of trucks - like an 18 wheeler.

Torontonians do not sound like that!! If you want the classic "hoser" accent like she's apparently impersonating (such as Bob & Doug Mckenzie) you have to go up north. Even folks in the Maritime provinces don't sound like that. Their accent is influenced by their Scottish and Irish ancestry and use hard "Rs" (aar) when they talk, which I love.

I took the quiz a few weeks ago and got Buffalo, Rodchester & Worcester. :)

I love this quiz! I took it a few days ago and even though I've been trying very hard to lose my slight New Yawk accent, my results still reflected it: New York, Yonkers, Newark. Oh, well...I Heart NY!

Joanna, all this time, I had in my mind that you actually spoke with an English accent. I have no reason to think this way, other than just letting my mind wander as I read your posts. Question answered! =)

I'm a total New Yorker! I sound exactly like where I'm from, south eastern New York state about 20 minutes up from the GW bridge. I loved going to Chicago a few years ago because people knew immediately I was a New Yorker. It was cool! =)

Hmmm...quiz says I'm Southern California through and through. I grew up in the Bay Area, lived in North Carolina for 8 years, and am back in the Bay now. I'd like to know what the differences are between NorCal and SoCal. When I was in college people would ask me if I was Midwestern—which always seriously confused me. Made me think I had a hard to place "neutral" accent.

Amazing video! I can't believe how well she does those accents. The CA one was hilarious, spot on!

When I did the quiz I got Kansas City and Mesa, AZ. I've never lived in either place, never even been to Kansas. I'm guessing it's because my Grandpa is from Kansas. I live in the Bay Area, CA, but I grew up in SoCal, lived in CO, OR, Chicago, NYC, and North Carolina. Maybe the mix gave me my dialect? Very interesting! It was fun doing it!

Joanna, you are a gem. Thanks so much for the virtual kiss and tips! I actually got a sun lamp about a month ago and it's been helping a bit. I'm working on using it consistently in the mornings. Next step: Vitamin D! Sometimes knowing you aren't the only one is just as powerful. Thanks for the link to your older post about battling the winter blues... I so appreciate it!

I'm sure I have a bit of a midwest twang, but I definitely don't say Bab instead of Bob. Ha. That dialect quiz put me in two places in California and Detroit. I do notice a much heavier Michigan accent on the westside of the state. My husband's family says my name with a super hard nasally 'a' and skip the second 'a' so it sounds like NAAAdly.

I'm sharing my Michigan accent love! Michigan accents are part of what's called the Great Lakes regional accent, and it's actually often perceived of as the "standard" form of English because of its historic use in many major, largely Chicago-based journalism schools (journalists were taught to read the news using the Great Lakes accent). So many people don't hear the accent, because it sounds "normal."

Nonetheless, just say "pop" and you've outed yourself as a Michigander!

I use the Amy Walker video in ESL classes with advanced learners, as well as the George Mason site - both are great! - but I have to say that Walker's Charleston accent in particular is atrocious. I'm from Charleston, and frankly I've never met an actual Southerner who sounded like that, much less a Charlestonian.

Is that what we sound like in California??? That's so funny.I'm on the phone with vendors from all over the country, and I always notice accents. But it's so interesting to see how mine sounds compared to the others in that video.

I took the dialect test and I got Southern California. It's creepy accurate and so much fun.

She's good, but obviously needs to travel to Canada. As some of my other fellow Canadians have pointed out we, do not, sound like that. I am also a Maritimer & can say that some east coaster's who are more isolated can sound similar to what she did, but it's pretty much just a bad cliche of a Canadian accent and most definitely not a Torontonian accent. Now, if you want to hear a funny Cape Breton accent....follow this link.http://youtu.be/vGylDMu_0TU

She's good, but obviously needs to travel to Canada. As some of my other fellow Canadians have pointed out we, do not, sound like that. I am also a Maritimer & can say that some east coaster's who are more isolated can sound similar to what she did, but it's pretty much just a bad cliche of a Canadian accent and most definitely not a Torontonian accent. Now, if you want to hear a funny Cape Breton accent....follow this link.http://youtu.be/vGylDMu_0TU

Fellow Michigander here :). I've been in dc for almost 10 years, so it's definitely subdued. If I spend more than a week at home it comes back! I wish it would stick around... I still refuse to say soda, pop all the way!

Born and raised and still living in Oregon but the test keeps generating Northern California cities (I've taken it three times. Obsessed!). My mother was born and raised in Northern California though and I have spent a lot of time there with my family, so I guess it's not totally off. I'm a bit surprised that it seems to be so exact for everyone else though

I find accents to be so fascinating. I grew up just outside of Chicago but have been in Kansas City (the land of no accent) for 11 years now. I thought my nasal-y dialect had pretty much left me but it sneaks out now and again.

In college, I lived in Montreal for the summer and while I was working with some kids at a church one asked me why I prayed to 'Gad' and everyone else prayed to 'God.' Whoops, sorry for messing up your theology, kiddo!

I'm Australian so the quiz didn't really work for me. Maybe if I'd chosen the horribly Australian word "youse" in the first question the result may have been different, but I can't stand that word! There were quite a few questions that I had to select "Other" as the answer as the word that I'd use wasn't on the list ie. a Drive Through is what we call a liquor store that you well, drive through, but it wasn't on the list!I do, however, live in the San Francisco Bay Area and that's where the quiz decided that my accent is from. I definitely don't sound American though. In fact, to most people I probably don't even sound Australian. In the two years that I've lived in the US I've maybe had 3 people correctly guess that I'm Australian. Most people guess that I'm English as the part of Australia that I'm from doesn't have the over the top Aussie accent (like the ones in the video). Actually, even though I'm Australian I always thought those horrible over the top Aussie accents (once again, like the ones from the video) were completely fictitious - until I moved to Sydney in my early 20s and discovered otherwise!

I was born and raised in New Jersey...I never thought I had an accent until I went to college at NYU, when everyone could immediately tell I was from North Jersey! Words like coffee ("caw-fee"), dog ("dawg"), talk ("tawk") give it away.

That video made me cringe. The Charleston one was so awful - she needs to listen to the This American Life segment about how real Southerners talk (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/138/The-Real-Thing?act=3), because right now she sounds like Foghorn Leghorn. Side note: I also grew up in Michigan and my Michigan accent only comes out when I drink. Ha!

Wow that's really impressive! I never realized there was much of a difference between Seattle and LA accents (I live near Seattle). I think the only one I can object to is the Torontonian one; never heard someone from TO talk like that.

Yeah, she definitely missed the Toronto accent. I'm Canadian and have been all over the country and never met someone who talks like that. People from Eastern Canada definitely have an accent, but it's much more subtle.

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I've spent half my life in one state, the other half in another. The quiz picked areas in between them, not bad.

Texas has definitely messed with some of my mannerisms and speech: I say y'all now, my accent is pretty neutral though I do say some things strangely, for some words I have various pronounciations of, and I leave out the 'u' in words now.

Ex: Before I would go with colour instead of color, the-ate-er instead of thete-er for theater, etc.